In an enterprise there are many hidden workflows that take place. The present invention relates to discovery of workflow, and more specifically to workflow discovery through analysis of communications, conversion of the hidden workflow to workflow within a database and presenting the workflow on a server.
Workflow as used herein is defined as a flow of communications and files which are exchanged between members of a group. These workflows may be created by individual employees on a daily basis, such as hourly, daily, monthly and so on. For example, within an enterprise, communications such as e-mail messages are usually exchanged between employees at a regular interval. Those e-mail messages may contain attached files or input within a message's body or within the message's header, which may need input from other employees on some basis. The employees spend time repeatedly processing and updating the attached files and sending these files back to the sender. The sender then has to review and check the attached files for the updated information when it is received.
For example, if a sender requests input to be placed in an attached spreadsheet file from three other employees through a communication, such as an e-mail message, each of the three employees which received the e-mail message will fill in a portion of the spreadsheet and each send an e-mail message back to the sender. The transactions associated with providing input in the spreadsheet are carried out individually by the three employees and the sender has to reconcile the three documents as they are received from the sender. This process may repeat as often as the sender needs input from the three employees. If there are five or ten employees, the process will be repeated with the number of employees at the sender. The workflows associated with providing input to the sender on a repeatable basis can result in additional overhead work among those employees, with some of the processes being duplicated between the employees involved. Furthermore, the input data in the spreadsheet is always stored in each of the employee's local disk and isn't shared, even if those files should be shared among authorized employees.